Older and Wiser

Happy birthday number two, SA!

Yep, my little guy is a whole year older already. Plus, 25% toothier! The last molars have broken through the gums, and in another week or two, I imagine we'll be much happier. (Technically, there's one more set of molars to go, but that's a couple years away, so I don't care.) This teething session has been less intense but more prolonged than the previous ones - he doesn't have a fever, and isn't lying listless in my arms wimpering for an entire afternoon, but he has been waking up at night quite a bit, and rising very very early.

Random age two notes:

• Brand awareness. We've known for a while that he can identify "Mommy car" (any Toyota) and "Daddy car" (Volkswagen). It has become clear that he knows the logos, rather than the cars themselves - I'm thinking we should probably try to teach him the brand names instead. It's silly to point to a red SUV and say "Mommy car!!!" when Mommy has a green Corolla.

• Many many words. A month ago I started making a list of his vocabulary to prepare for his 2 year assessment - some guideline or other suggested he should know at least 10 words, and more normally at least 40. I finished the list at around 90, then after he woke up, he used at least 4 words that weren't on the list, and I realized that we've busted right through any slowness in picking up vocab.

• Speech! Grammar! "One two three blue cars, cars crash, cars down." After I explained "the dog is broken" to him this morning (a mechanical dog that used to bark and walk, but has been much abused), he looked at it sadly and said "broken dog." Which made me excited - he understands how adjectives and nouns go together! Maybe in a few years we can diagram sentences together! He makes plurals - often correctly - but I become confused when we're talking about sheep and feet because, do I use the plurals correctly and risk confusing the general rule in his mind, or do I reinforce the rule and mess up the exceptions? It's possible I'm overthinking the whole thing. Especially since, at his current rate of learning, he'll be correcting my grammar in a year or two.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!

The birthday haul: baseball mitts - his grandparents weren't sure if he was a lefty or a righty, so he has both mitts, just in case. (Wouldn't want to screw up his major league career before he turns three.)

He shoots, he scores! Eventually I'll convince him to try shooting from further away than 2 feet.

Train cake! Cake + new teeth = drool.

"This administration will not rest until no child need choose between a green steering wheel or a blue steering wheel, but instead has easy access to both!"